Veteran Formula One journalist Adam Cooper has been a busy man this Thursday and got two major nuggets from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

In Cooper’s blog, Ecclestone told Cooper that Mercedes was purely at fault for its secret test at Barcelona. Mercedes’ Ross Brawn essentially fell on the sword when he said in Montreal that the tire test of Pirelli’s 2013 compounds, on this year’s Mercedes W04, was his decision.

“Pirelli were doing the right thing, obviously. They couldn’t get out of a tire problem, if there had been proper testing, which there should be, they wouldn’t be in this problem,” Ecclestone told Cooper.

He added regarding Mercedes directly, “What is right, is right, you know. The one thing an unmarried girl has got is the right to say ‘no.’ You would have to reckon that Mercedes were in that position…”

Ecclestone also claimed Pirelli has a long-term contract in place already beyond this year, but no such deal has been done to confirm the tire manufacturer’s participation from 2014. He ruled out Michelin returning in the same breath.

“No idea. I haven’t got a clue. I haven’t spoken to anyone. We have a long-term contract with Pirelli, as the FIA do. And I think most of the teams have – I think they’ve done a deal with all the teams they want to do a deal with,” he said.